This invention relates to microlens arrays and associated detector/emitter pixel arrays.
This invention relates particularly to dispersive microlens apparatus and methods which can be used in one mode for detecting multiple, different wavelengths from a bandwidth of the wavelengths (existing within an image plane blur spot) and which can be used in another mode for combining a plurality of different, emitted wavelengths into a bandwidth of the wavelengths (at a blur spot in an image plane).
The individual microlenses of the present invention may typically range in size from a diameter of 50 microns to 1 millimeter. Related detectors may be fabricated from bulk material that is thinned to a thickness associated to fast optical design f/1 in the substrates. The microlenses are located, usually in one dimensional or two dimensional arrays, at an image plane, and associated detectors/emitters are located in pixels in a detector/emitter plane which is spaced from the image plane.
The individual microlenses of the present invention may be Fresnel or non-Fresnel microlenses, and may be fabricated by binary or non-binary fabrication techniques, may have a variety of geometric shapes, such as, for example, circular, square, hexagonal, and rhombic.